21ST Century Literature from the Philippines and Examples:

the World Bisaya

Baboy sa lasang, (A wild pig of the forest,)

What is Literature? Ang tunok puro lansang. (Is covered with spikes.)
-study of our own culture Answer: Nangka (Jackfruit)
-body of writtten works Meranaw
(nababasa/nakasulat) Sominub lawiyan, (It dived,)
-originated from oral traditions Mbowat lawitan. (It rose.)
(sinasalita) Answer: Ragum (Needle)
-are imaginative words Chavacano
(bunga ng imahinasyon)
-deals with stories and poetry Tagia que tagia, (You keep on slashing it,)
-the content depends on the author Hende ta penetra. (But it does not penetrate)
Answer: Agua (Water)
Three points of Literature
Proverbs (Mga Salawikain)
1. Literature portrays human experience • These are statements that are considered as wise.
2. Authors intrepret these human experiences • These are usually given by parents or elders of the
3. It is an art form and a style of expression community.
• There is belief that experience is the best teacher.

Three Literary Periods Examples:

BC-1564 The Pre-Colonial Period
-this existed before the Spanish occupation in the 1500s
-it is the ral in nature and is full of lessons and ideas about
life,its blessing and its concequences
-it contains ideas from birth to the grave
-the sources are usualy the local native town folk.
Mandaya on Viriginity
Yang ataog aw madugdug, (An egg once broken,)
Di da mamauli. (Will never be the same.)
Tausug on Secret Affairs Ilocano on Guilt
In lasa iban uba, (Love and cough,)
Ti agutak, (He who cackles)
Di hikatapuk. (Cannot be hidden.)
Isut nagitlog. (Laid the egg.)

Oral Literature Folk Songs Folk Tales Folk Songs

Riddles Lullabies Myths-This is • These are folk lyrics that are usually chanted.
Proverbs Drinking Songs told to explain a • These usually contain ideas on aspirations, hopes, everyday
Love songs beliefs,a practire life and expressions of love for loved ones.
Songs of Death or a natural • It is bounded by the learning of good morals.
Religious Songs phenomenon. • It is easy to undestand because it is straightforward and not
figurative in nature.
Legends-This is
presented as Lullabies
histories but - these is locally known as the Hele. These are sung to put to
unlikely to be sleep babies. The content varies, but usually, parents sing these
true. with ideas on how hard life is and how they hope that their
Fables-it features child will not experience the hardships of life.
animal characters
or inanimamte Drinking Songs - these are locally known as Tagay and are
objects that sung during drinking sessions.
behave like
people. Love Songs - to many Filipinos, these are known as the
Harana. It can also be called Courtship Songs and are used by
Epics-this young men to capture the heart of the girl that they love.
narrative poems
celebrates the Religious Songs - are songs or chants that are usually given
adventures and during exorcisms and thanksgiving during good harvest.
achievements of
the hero. Songs of Death - are lamentations that contain the roll of good
deeds that the dead has usually done to immortalize his or her
Riddles (Mga Bugtong) good image.
• These are statements that contain superficial words, but
they function figuratively and as metaphors, and are in the Folk Tales (Mga kwentong bayan)
form of questions.
• These are questions that demand deeper answers. • These are stories of native Filipinos.
• Deals with everyday life. • These also tackle about irresponsibility, lust, stupidity,
• This is used in the past as a form of game in small or large deception, and fallibility that eventually leads to the instilling
gatherings. of good morals.
Usual Themes:
• Ceremonies needed to appease the deities.
• Pre and Post apocalypse
• Life and Death
• Gods and Goddesses
• Heroes and Heroines
• Supernatural beings
• Animal
• Myths - these tackle the natural to strange occurences of
the earth and how things were created with an aim to give an
explanation to things.
-There is Bathala for the Tagalogs.
• Legends - through legends, the natives understood
mysteries around them. These stories usually come with a
moral lesson that give credit to supernatural powers,
supernatural
occurences, and other out-of this-world native imagination.
• Fables - are short or brief stories that cater the children of
the native Filipinos and are usually bounded by good
manners and right conduct. These stories use animals as
characters that represent a particular value or characteristic.
• Epics - are very lengthy narratives that are based on oral
traditions. These contain encounters of fighters, stereotypical
princes or heroes that save a damsel in distress.
Examples:
Myths - The Story of Bathala Ang Pag-aaway ng Dagat at
Langit
Legends - The Legend of Maria Makiling
-The Legend of the Sampaguita
Fables - Ang Kuneho at and Pagong
-Si Juan Tamad
Epics -Hinilawod Darangen
1521-1898 The SPANISH Period
The Spanish Period
there was an immediate shift on the focus of literature.
it became centered on the Christian faith.
suddenly it is all about the lives of the saints and other
religious hymns.
The Spanish Period
• The start of the Philippine's more colorful history took
place in March 6, 1521 when Ferdinand Magellan docked on
the shores of Homonhon.
• The Filipinos were then called “Ladinos”, meaning they
were latinized.
• Filipinos were called two things. One is the “Taga-Bayan”,
while the other is the “Taga-bukid” or “Taga-bundok”.
• A person who is a Taga-bayan is considered urbane and
civilized and were in easy range of the church and state.
• A person who is a Taga-bundok or Taga-bukid is called a
Bruto Salvage (Savage Brute) or Indio and were the ones
who lived far from the center of the Spanish power.
Forms
1.Religious Literature
a.Passion b. Senakulo c. Komedya
2. Secular or Non-Religious Literature
a. Awit b. Korido c. Prose Narratives
4. Propaganda Literature
4. Revolutionary Literature
Religious Literature
• Revolves around the life and the death of Jesus Christ.
Forms of Religious Literature:
Passion - it is about the passion (journey and suffering) and
the death of Jesus Christ.
Senakulo - it is the dramatization of the Passion of Christ.
Komedya - it depicts the European society through love and
fame, but can also be a narrative about a journey, just like
Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. It is also considered
religous, because it usually depicts the battle between the
Christians and the Saracens or the Moros.
Forms of Religious Literature:
Moro-moro – is a blood-and-thunder melodrama depicting the
conflict of Christians and Muslims.
Tibag – is the dramatic reenactment of St. Helena’s search for
the Holy Cross.
Duplo or Karagatan – are native dramas that are connected to
Catholic mourning rituals and harvest celebrations.
Secular or Non- Religious Literature
• Revolves around tales of valiance and adventure.
Forms of Secular or Non-Religious Literature:
Awit - these are tales of chivalry where a knight saves a
princess. Korido - is a metrical tale or a tale that follows the
structure of a poem.
Prose Narratives - are easy to understand instructional
materials that in a literary light that teaches Filipinos on proper
decorum. Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si Urbana at
Feliza (1864) is a good example.
Forms of Secular or Non-Religious Literature:
Carrilo – is a play that uses shadows as its main spectacle.
This is created by animating figures made from cardboard,
which are projected onto white screen.
Zarzuela – is probably one of the most famous forms of
entertainment back in the Spanish era. These are musical
comedies and melodramas that deal with the elemental
passions of human beings.
Propaganda Literature
• These were in the forms of satires, editorials, and news
articles that aimed to attack the Spanish Rule.
• The propaganda trinity is composed of Dr. Jose Rizal,
Marcelo H. Del Pilar, and Graciano Lopez Jaena.
Examples:
Graciano Lopez Jaena
Ang Fray Botod
LA HIJA DEL FRAILE (The Child of the Friar) and
EVERYTING IS HAMBUG (Everything is mere show)
Marcelo H. Del Pilar
KAIINGAT KAYO (Be Careful)
DASALAN AT TOCSOHAN (Prayers and Jokes)
ANG CADAQUILAAN NG DIOS (God’s Goodness)
Dr. Jose Rizal
NOLI ME TANGERE- this was the novel that gave spirit
to the propaganda movement and paved the way to the
revolution against Spain. In this book, he courageously
exposed the evils in the Spanish-run government in the
Philippines.
Revolutionary Literature
• are exposes that sparked revolution and resistance in the
hearts of Filipinos
. Examples:
 Andres Bonifacio
 Katungkulang Gagawin ng mga Anak ng Bayan
(Obligations of our Countrymen)
 Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog (What the
Tagalogs should Know)
 Emilio Jacinto
 Liwanag at Dilim (Light and Darkness)
 Apolinario Mabini
 El Desarollo y Caida de la Republica Filipina (The Rise
and Fall of the Philippine Republic)
 The American Elinzano
 Dr. Jose Rizal
El Filibusterismo – This is a sequel to the NOLI. While the
NOLI exposed the evils in society, the FILI exposed those in
the government and in the church. However, the NOLI has
been dubbed the novel of society while that of FILI is that of
politics.
Publications
El Heraldo de la Revolucion (Herald of the Revolution)
La Independencia (Independence)
La Republica Filipina (The Philippine Republic)
La Libertad (Liberty)
1900-1942 The AMERICAN Period
The Philippines had a great leap in Education and Culture.
• The use of English alongside Filipino was practiced.
• The Philippines Public School system was introduced.
• Free public instruction was given to the Filipinos.
• The literature during the American period was considered
as imitative of American model. Instead of asking the
students to write originals, students ended up following the
form of American poets.
Poetry
Jose Corazon de Jesus (1832-1896) popularly known as
“Batute,” created his own generation with his first book of
poems.
Mga Gintong Dahon (1920)- were poems pre-occupied with
such non-traditional themes.
Sa Dakong Silangan (1928)- returned to the awit form,
retelling the history of Philippines under Spain.
Drama
Severino Reyes (1861-1942)
Examples:
Walang Sugat (1902)- is a sarsuwela (drama in the form
singing) drawn from the period of Revolution, depicting the
cruelty and corruption of friars and the heroism of the soldiers
of the Katipunan.
Other successful sarsuwelas:
Hindi Aco Patay (1903) by Juan Matapang Cruz
Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas (1903) by Aurelio Tolentino- is an
allegorical presentation of the history of the nationalist
struggle and how the US. frustrated the Philippine revolution.
Tanikalang Guinto (1902) by Juan Abad (1872-1932)- is about
Liwanag and K’Ulayaw, lovers who stand for freedom and the
Filipino.
Remake Novels
Gabriel Beato Francisco (1850-1935)- is best known for his
trilogy of Fulgencia Galbillo (1907), Capitan Bensio (1907),
Alfaro (1909), depicting the 30 years of colonial repression by
the Spanish rule.
Inigo Ed. Regalado (1888-1976)- Madaling Araw (1909) was
his first novel showing the complex interrelations of issues and
people in contemporary Philippine society.
Juan Lauro Arsciwals (1889-1928)- Lalaking Uliran o Tulisan
(1914), allusion to the colonial law that branded Filipino
patriots as bandits.
1941-1945 The JAPANESE Period
1946- 1985 The REPUBLIC
The Japanese Period and the Republic
• The Philippine literature came into a halt.
• The use of the English language was forbidden, and the use
of the Filipino language was mandated under the Japanese
rule.
• For some this was a problem, but to most writers, it was a
blessing in disguise.
• Almost all news papers were stopped except for some.
• Filipino literature was given a break during this period. Many
wrote plays, poems, short stories, etc. Topics and themes were
often about life in the provinces.
Forms
1. Poetry
2. Fiction
3. Drama
4. Newspapers
5. Essays
Drama
The drama experienced a lull during the Japanese period
because movie houses showing American films were closed.
The big movie houses were just made to show stage shows.
Many of the plays were reproductions of English plays to
Tagalog.
Newspapers
Writings that came out during this period were journalistic in
nature. Writers felt suppressed but slowly, the spirit of
nationalism started to seep into their consciousness. While
some continued to write, the majority waited for a better
climate to publish their works.
Poetry
The common theme of most poems during the Japanese
occupation was nationalism, country, love, and life in the
barrios, faith, religion and the arts.
Fiction
The field of the short story widened during the Japanese
Occupation. Many wrote short stories

Essays
Essays were composed to gorify the Filipinos and at the
same time to figuratively attack the Japanese.

LITERATURE OF THE PHILIPPINES

TODAY

In the 21st centruy Philippines, there are a lot of literary

innovations that are adapted and created by Filipinos.
Nowadays, even those who do not have any significant
literary background make their own way using the freedom
that they have to write and to express.
There are a lot of new froms from the basic genres of
literature; thus, proving how far the literature in the
Philippines has gone and how far it will go on from here.